


Detective al Ghul

by Marcus_S_Lazarus



Series: Detective al Ghul [1]
Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan), Castle (TV 2009)
Genre: Kate Beckett is Talia al Ghul
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:27:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23635318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marcus_S_Lazarus/pseuds/Marcus_S_Lazarus
Summary: The aftermath of her mother’s death leads the woman who will become Detective Kate Beckett on a path away from her father’s plans for her...
Series: Detective al Ghul [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1701526
Kudos: 1





	1. The Mother's Loss

**Author's Note:**

> This story was inspired by a piece of fanart created by AwesomeGeek- which I’ve since lost track of- and is based primarily around the idea that Stana Katic, who plays Kate Beckett in _Castle_ , was also the voice of Talia al Ghul in _Batman: Arkham City_ (And if anyone hasn't played that game or its prequel, you really should; it's an exceptional game with a great plot that really uses all of the characters involved in its storyline); set in the continuity of 'Batman Begins' for the DC cast and opening some years before the pilot for _Castle_ , this might not be a long story, but I hope you enjoy what there is of it

Looking back on those dark days after her mother's murder, the specific events of the aftermath would always be somewhat confusing to recall. The events leading up to their discovery of the murder would be forever imprinted in her mind- the moment when she and Jim Beckett had come home to find the detectives waiting outside their flat and the subsequent tale of how her mother had been found dead in an alleyway, everything dismissed as a random mugging despite all the evidence that even she could see didn't make sense-, but everything from then to the funeral had passed in a blur, with her attending to everything that had to be dealt with on automatic rather than thinking about it...

When she walked into her uncle's flat the day after the funeral and saw her father sitting there, however, whatever haze she'd been in ended as she realised that the person she most and least wanted to see was in her apartment.

"Hello, daughter," he said, smiling at her as she turned back after locking the door behind her, sitting serenely in the apartment's most comfortable chair, now repositioned to stare at the door.

"Hello," she said, nodding briefly back at him, not even bothering to reply with a 'father'; her next question was the only thing she wanted to say to him right now. "You know?"

"I am aware of the circumstances of it; nothing more," her father replied, nodding in acknowledgement of her query. "I have been... busy... or I would have been here sooner-"

" _Don't_ ," she interjected, staring firmly at him.

He could say that he cared as much as he liked, but she wasn't in the mood for that; with the resources he had available to him, he should be out there _doing_ something...

She might not always approve of what she had heard about his activities, but she'd always been able to convince herself in the past that what her father had done had been done because he was genuinely interested in helping other people by taking out those who deserved it; if he couldn't even be bothered to show up for her mother's _funeral_...

"You don't even _care_ , do you?" she spat at him. "My mother is _dead_ , and all you can do is _sit_ there while Jim breaks down and... and..."

She turned away from him and slammed her hand against the wall behind her in frustration, unable to say or do anything to express the turmoil she felt inside herself right now, remaining in that position until she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"I have lost much over the course of my long life, daughter," her father said, his tone expressing the rare moment of sympathy that she had so rarely heard from him. "I mourn their losses, but it is necessary-"

"'Necessary'?" she spat, turning to glare at him. "She was my _mother_ ; what was 'necessary' about her death?"

"I cannot afford to allow myself to be distracted by... personal matters, daughter," her father said, still staring at her apologetically. "They can motivate me, but I cannot let them define me; it is necessary for me to maintain a clear focus on my task.

'Necessary'...

That was always how he'd justified his silence about his work in the past, now that she thought about it.

She'd never doubted that her parents loved each other as much as they loved her, even if neither of them had been that expressive towards each other- although her mother had been more than expressive enough towards her for both parents-, but she'd never been entirely comfortable with the secrets that her father had kept from her.

She'd never been deceived about the fact that what he did with his life wasn't a conventional 'business', but she hadn't exactly been told the truth either; her father had always told her that it wasn't time for her to know the full truth of what he did for a living and left it at that, even as she often found herself noting that the locations where he told her that he was going to next on 'business' tended to have certain upheavals taking place in some of the less reputable parts of the countries in question...

Like any little girl who loves her father, she'd wanted to believe the best of him.

But if he could just sit there and speak so coldly about her _mother_...

"I can't do this any more," she said, staring at him resolutely.

"Do what?" her father asked, looking at her in confusion.

" _This_ ," she said, staring firmly at him. "I could cope with you just... dropping in and out of my life whenever you wanted-"

"I have a responsibility to the League-" he began.

"I _know_ that you have your reasons, but I just... I can't _do_ this, all right," she said, glaring at him in exasperation. "You come and go whenever it suits you, barely made it in time for _anything_ I actually asked you to be there for- god, my _uncle_ is more like my father than you are; at least he can be guaranteed to _show up_ -, and now, when you could actually _use_ those resources to help, you _won't_..."

"I cannot allow my anger to control me, daughter," her father said, looking solemnly at her. "I have endured that pain before, and giving in to it just led to even greater harm; I must maintain my distance-"

"I _haven't_ endured it before!" she said, glaring at him as she stepped back to ensure that he was listening to her. "You might be able to see some grand picture, but I _can't_ ; all I can see right now is Jim Beckett, trying to cope with the fact that he's just lost his only sister in a stupid, pointless accident that nobody's going to look at more closely..."

For a moment she simply stood in silence, staring at her father in cold resolution, before she sighed and continued to speak. "I... no matter how you cope with... what you do... I can't _do_ that. I've just lost my mother, and nobody's giving me answers... just like the families of those caught up in your crusade won't get any answers..."

"The work pains me more than you can imagine, daughter-" her father began.

"But I don't _see_ you care," she replied, staring at him, hoping that he wouldn't take this the wrong way even as she knew that even the right interpretation of what she was about to say would hurt him. "I just... I don't want to _lose_ that connection... and I don't want to become so detached that it stops happening. I know that it won't end what I'm feeling right now, but I don't want to do something that will cause others to feel this pain; I want... something that will give them _answers_."

"Sometimes there are no answers, daughter-" her father began.

"But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to find them," she countered, staring firmly back at him. "Even if you won't do anything yourself... even if you have to focus on your _mission_... let me have a chance to find a way to help those who need it."

After her father had stared silently at her for a few moments, she spoke again.

"If you care about me at all," she said, playing the one card that she knew he wouldn't be able to resist, "you have to let me do find my own way now."

For a moment, the two of them stood in the flat and stared in silence at each other, contemplation on her father's face and determination on hers, until the older of the two finally broke the silence.

"How will you do this?" he asked.

Despite the grim mood of the situation, she smiled at him.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything to incriminate you," she said, before her eyes narrowed. "But let me make one thing clear; if you do anything- _anything_ \- that threatens where I am, or might come to threaten anyone I care about-"

"I will not," her father replied, nodding briefly at her in acceptance of her ultimatum before it had even been fully delivered. "We will meet again."

"I know," she replied, nodding in acknowledgement of his statement. "But... not yet. Just... give me time to find my way."

"Of course," he said, nodding politely at her. "Goodbye, Talia."

"Goodbye, father," she said, nodding back at him before he departed the flat, the door closing behind him.

As the door clicked shut behind her father, she somehow knew that this moment was the moment when she would stop even referring to herself as Talia al Ghul.

She wouldn't insist that her father call her by anything else, of course- given who and what he was, he was a creature of habit even if very few of them were predictable ones-, but she could no longer think of herself as Talia after what had just transpired.

As far as she was concerned, the life she'd lived where her father was a constant presence in her life was over.

From this moment onwards, she would be Kate Beckett- the name her mother had given her to escape her father's enemies and help her blend in with other children- first and foremost; what she'd been when she was Talia al Ghul had no place in the life that she would now create for herself.

Somehow, in some way, she was going to help people find the answers that it seemed nobody could provide for her...


	2. A Perfect Match?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is set a few years after the last chapter, while Kate's started work at the NYPD

As she sat in the restaurant, waiting patiently for her father, Kate- she hadn't thought of herself as Talia since her last meeting with her only remaining parent, even if she would still answer to it if it was used in her presence- wondered why she was doing this. Ever since their last meeting after her mother's funeral, she'd tended to rely on Jim Beckett as a parental influence rather than thinking too much about the man that she was about to meet, to the point that she had started thinking of him as her father more regularly than she had ever considered her actual father as such.

Jim Beckett might not have been perfect, of course- the trouble he'd had as he succumbed to alcoholism after the funeral was proof enough of that-, but at least he wasn't unwilling to show that he cared. Kate might have spent more time feeling like she was his parent rather than the other way around over the last few years, but at least she'd been dealing with someone who actually cared about what had happened, rather than just locking it all away and moving on as though nothing had happened.

As for herself, while her current role as an officer in the New York Police Department was difficult, she was nevertheless satisfied with the path that she'd chosen for herself. Royce and Montgomery had both complimented her skill at noticing small details and talking with suspects- even if the second only occurred when they were _really_ desperate, given her own junior status-, her therapy sessions had allowed her to move past the worst of her pre-existing obsessive interest in her mother's case- sometimes there just wasn't anything that could be done, regardless of what you wanted to do-, and in general she got along well with her current colleagues.

Admittedly, given her current profession, meeting with her father under any circumstance was awkward at best- even if he'd never admitted to anything explicitly, she had heard enough conversations and seen enough on the news to have a fair idea of what the 'League' actually did-, but until he did something that she _knew_ he was responsible for, she had long ago promised herself that she wouldn't ask any questions about what he had done. Given that her father had never done anything remotely criminal in New York, coupled with the fact that the League hadn't carried out any major operations since before her birth, she wasn't violating her oath as a cop to just talk to him, even if she knew that what he did would raise some questions at least if she'd had to examine him as a suspect in anything.

She'd never really thought much about her father's activities when she was a child- what child wanted to consider the possibility that their parents were criminals, after all?-, but now that she was an adult, she had a better idea of what he did, and while she recognised that his fundamental mission was a quest for justice, the rest of her shied away from asking what kind of 'justice' he sought.

So long as she didn't know the answer for certain, she didn't have to worry too much about what she was doing...

Besides, it wasn't like the knowledge- or lack of it- made that much difference to her relationship with him, when she got down to it, given how little time they'd spent together even before her mother's death. Since her mother's death, she and her father had- to the best of her knowledge- never even been in the same city as each other, Kate pouring all of her efforts into completing her remaining courses so that she could apply for the police academy while her father kept his word and stayed out of her life as a physical presence. Admittedly, he'd contacted her to let her know that he had set up a trust fund in order to provide her with some additional financial support, but she'd already promised herself long ago that she wouldn't take anything from her father unless she absolutely had to; her mother's life insurance and some money she'd earned from the occasional part-time job (No matter how embarrassing it had been) were more than enough to support her at the moment.

She just hoped that this meeting wasn't about the fact that she hadn't done anything with that money; if her father gave her an ultimatum of some kind, she had no idea how she'd react...

"Hello, Talia," a voice said, Kate briefly starting before she looked around in time to see her father walk around the table to sit down opposite her, smiling briefly at her.

"Hello," she said, nodding politely back at him.

"I have followed your... career... with great interest," her father said, a slight edge to his voice that Kate wasn't sure how to interpret; he didn't exactly seem to disapprove of her choices, but there was something about his tone that suggested a kind of disappointment nevertheless.

"It's still early," she said, shrugging slightly while trying to give the impression that his opinion didn't really matter as much as it did. "My captain and my training officer both feel that I've got potential."

"That is... good to know," her father said, smiling slightly at her.

"What's this about?" she said, looking at him with a stare that she liked to think she'd been picking up from Royce (A part of her wondered if the genetics of the man before her also helped, but she wasn't going to look into that particular thought in detail unless she had to).

"You always were able to see through my best efforts..." her father said, a wistful smile on his face as he looked at her before he nodded and continued speaking. "As you are aware, the League often takes on and trains a variety of new and potentially promising recruits to ensure that we maintain our numbers-"

"If this is about a recruitment drive-" Kate began.

"You are content in your current profession and I will not seek to take that away from you; I respect your decision even if I do not agree with it," her father said, holding up a hand to halt her protest before he continued. "However, as our business in the League becomes more... complicated... I must look forward to the future as well. No matter how I try, I cannot lead the League forever, and-"

"You want my help providing you with an heir?" Kate asked, looking at him with a scathing smile; if he'd come here just to suggest she act as a broodmare, she would take great pleasure in ensuring that his legacy ended with him.

"I merely wished to inform you that I know of a man with the skills and dedication that would make him an appropriate heir to my own position," her father replied, staring at her in the same neutral manner he always seemed to use when discussing personal matters. "I offer no threats and demand nothing; I merely wished to make the offer."

"Why do you even care about that?" she asked, looking at him. "You could probably do it yourself and get any woman you really wanted even if you just told her about your... public activities-"

"But, no matter where I searched, I would not find one woman that I could love," her father replied, his tone reflecting a rare moment of pain and introspection that Kate had never heard from him before.

Looking back on their argument, she still felt that her reasons for leaving at the time had been justified- she didn't want to become as detached from the common man as her father had become over the years of his own crusade-, but, at the same time, accusing him of not caring about her mother had been taking things further than she should have.

He might have stopped himself from fully registering the scale of the pain and damage he caused to others, but he wasn't so far gone that he didn't still miss her mother; he just chose bad times to show it.

"Out of curiosity," she said, looking slightly curiously at him, "who _is_ this protégé you thought worth mentioning?"

"His name is Bruce Wayne," her father replied.

For a moment, Kate couldn't believe that she'd heard her father correctly, and then she just couldn't stop her jaw from dropping in shock.

"Hold on; Bruce _Wayne_?" she said, looking at her father incredulously. "As in, the Gotham City Bruce Wayne? Heir to the Wayne Enterprises fortune, one of the richest people on the planet? _That_ Bruce Wayne?"

"The same," her father said, nodding at her with a smile. "He has a deep resolution to oppose criminals after the fate that befell his family; considering the... circumstances... that motivated you to take this path, coupled with the exceptional skill he has displayed in his training, I have seen that he possesses the same dedication and commitment that you do-"

"Not the right kind of commitment," Kate said, shaking her head as she stood up, her gaze fixed resolutely on her father. "I respect what you're trying to do with the League, but it's not the way I do things; just... consider your suggestion ignored."

It was an abrupt and potentially awkward way to end things, Kate knew, but it was all that she could think of to do right now; if she stayed here any longer, she might do something that she would regret, particularly since she wasn't even sure what she'd regret doing in a situation like this.

Given how utterly bizarre and complicated their relationship was, the idea of her father actually trying to set her up on a date was unquestionably the strangest part of this whole mess; the thought of _Bruce Wayne_ training with the League of Shadows was strange, but she was removed enough from that particular situation that whatever he was doing with his life didn't really affect her, so she'd focus on what she could relate to and leave it at that.

Even if Bruce was motivated by similar events to what had inspired her current path- she certainly recalled reading about the death of the Waynes almost two decades ago, even if she'd been too young to register the scale of what that meant for Gotham and their company-, she wasn't going to be part of her father's vision.

Right now, all she wanted to do was get back to her apartment and have a rest before returning to another day at work...


	3. Silent Attack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another jump forward by a year or so, with Kate still an officer rather than a detective and a mix of familiar and unfamiliar faces at the precinct; hope you like it

Staring at the 'murder board' as the lead detective packed it away, Kate had to admit that she was feeling good about her career choice so far.

She might still have to wait a few months at least before she was in a position to take the detective's exam- and even that was being exceptionally optimistic-, but at least she was making an impression on the right people with her drive and focus on the job. She was even managing to make a few new friends, such as another new officer in the precinct, Javier Esposito, and the new medical assistant, Lanie Parish, even if there wasn't much time for them to interact socially given the amount of time they had to work each day (She got on relatively well with the detectives, but there was still a 'rank gap' that had to be taken into account).

In a way, things were going so well that a part of her almost worried about when her father would 'step in'. Even if he had expressed pride in her decision to find her own path, Kate couldn't shake the feeling that he would prefer her loyalty rather than her success in a field of employment away from him; after living for so long, her father rarely took rejection well...

Quite frankly, she sometimes wondered- when she allowed herself to think about him- if the only reason she was still allowed such relative freedom was the lack of other children, as he didn't want to anger or alienate her when she was the only member of the next generation currently in existence (Even if the chances of her letting him raise _any_ children that she might have were slim to none)...

Shaking such paranoid thoughts aside- she wasn't even thinking about having kids herself any time soon-, Kate reached over to pick up the nearest newspaper- she still had a few minutes to go before her shift ended, and she hadn't had the chance to check the news lately-, and opened it almost at random, only for her eyes to be quickly drawn to a specific article title.

 _ **Silent Attack on Gotham City**_.

Whether it was because her last meeting with her father was still prominent in her mind, or simply because of the gut instinct that she had been told would make her an excellent detective when she got the chance to take the exam in question, Kate immediately started to read the article.

In general, the information contained in the paper was relatively basic compared to the usual amount of coverage given to an attack of this nature, most likely because of the lack of information about what had actually happened. The term 'silent attack' was apparently referring to the method of attack rather than the results, as there had been little in the way of conventional terror weapons used, to the point where some sources seemed to be declaring the whole crisis an accident rather than a deliberate attack, despite credible sources noting that it was all too calculated to be random. There were reports of a gas attack that had apparently triggered a mass hysteria in parts of the city- particularly in the small island off the coast of the main city known as the Narrows-, but some sources seemed content to attribute that part of the story to the patients that had been released from the local mental hospital, Arkham Asylum- apparently located in the Narrows itself-, by the still-unknown attackers.

According to various witness reports, including Assistant District Attorney Rachel Dawes and newly-promoted Detective Lieutenant James Gordon, the attack had been carried out by men dressed in black with excellent skills in hand-to-hand combat, who had broken into the asylum and released the inmates to keep the general population occupied while they had installed some kind of device on the Gotham monorail system. Gordon had subsequently explained that the train's destruction as it approached the central Wayne Tower had been triggered to prevent the device in question from reaching the tower, although what the device had been capable of was left almost deliberately unspecified. The only other interesting information in the article was Gordon's comment about the thanks that Gotham owed the 'Batman' for his role in averting disaster; apparently, Batman had been involved in the destruction of the Gotham monorail train, which- as verified by unidentified experts at Wayne Enterprises- had been carrying a highly dangerous weapon that would have had devastating consequences if it had reached the central Wayne Tower on its own.

 _Batman_...

She'd heard about Gotham's newest surprise mystery resident, of course- given Gotham's infamous reputation among law enforcement agencies, the existence of a vigilante taking out such prominent crime bosses as Carmine Falcone had made waves in the right parts of the country-, but the idea that he'd been involved in something on this scale pushed him more than slightly above the common 'vigilante'. Where most of them were low-key amateurs impulsively acting out, the Batman appeared to be far more coordinated and well-trained in his efforts, with reports clearly depicting him as possessing exceptional advanced weaponry and technology, even if it still left those who'd read the reports with questions about why Batman had gone to those kind of lengths rather than simply becoming a conventional police officer.

Now that Kate thought about it...

Berating herself for not doing this earlier, Kate re-read the article, focusing for any reference to a particular name, before she noted a page reference at the end that prompted her to turn to the relevant page to find herself reading about how Bruce Wayne- 'notorious Gotham playboy'- had burnt down Wayne Manor during his birthday dinner on the same night of the 'Silent Attack' on Gotham; once the night was over, he and his butler had apparently relocated to some fancy penthouse in the city centre.

Her father's prize student burnt down his manor on the same night that his city was attacked in a manner that practically screamed that the League of Shadows had been involved in the attack; Kate didn't need to be a detective to realise that those two events occurring so closely together couldn't be a coincidence.

The fact that Bruce Wayne was clearly recorded as still being in Gotham meant that the obvious assumption that he'd been helping the League in their attack didn't quite make sense, but when you added in the fact that, shortly after his return to the city, a mysterious but highly skilled vigilante with access to a surprising amount of technology and skills had also become active in the city...

Anyone who didn't know what Bruce had been doing while he was away would probably have assumed that it was just a coincidence, given Wayne's reputation in some of the papers she'd read, but when she knew where he'd been and what kind of reputation he'd had with her father...

The implications might be obvious, but that still left her with a few questions about the specifics of what had taken place during that dark knight in Gotham. If the League of Shadows had attacked Gotham in such a public manner, they had definitely something planned to do more than start a riot, which meant that, if she wanted to figure out what they'd been up to, there was only one source that she knew how to contact. Before she could change her mind, she stood up and walked over to the captain's office, knocking on the door and letting herself in after the cursory response.

"Officer Beckett?" Captain Montgomery said, looking up from his desk in surprise when he realised who had just entered his office. "Is something wrong?"

"Sir," she said, looking awkwardly at Montgomery, "I know this is a bit abrupt, but... I need a few days off; something's come up that I need to look into."

"A few days off?" Montgomery repeated, looking at her in a sceptical manner. "Officer Beckett, you barely even take your _scheduled_ days off..."

"I know, sir, and believe me, I would _never_ ask for time off if it wasn't important, but this has to be dealt with; I have a... family crisis that I need to look into," Kate said, hoping that her reputation as a dedicated officer with no similar requests in her background would be enough to compensate for this impulsive desire for time off...

"Well," Montgomery said, smiling slightly at her after staring silently at her for a few moments, "like I said, given how you sometimes don't even take your scheduled days off, I suppose you've got a few days of leave you can use."

"All I need is a few, sir," Kate said, smiling gratefully at him. "Thank you."

With that dealt with, she turned around and left Montgomery's office before heading for the precinct exit; she trusted Montgomery to fill in the necessary paperwork right now, and the sooner she got on with what she felt she had to do now the better.

Of course, her first priority once she got to Gotham would be to buy an appropriate dress; it might be an odd occasion to dip into her father's 'emergency assets' account, but given who she was trying to speak to, whether or not her theory about his role in recent events was accurate, her usual clothing attire just wasn't going to cut it when she got there...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Simple, but I think it works; coming up next, Bruce Wayne and Kate Beckett meet...


	4. The Children of the Demon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's a couple of days after the last one and is told from Bruce's perspective- I'm assuming that a few more days passed between Bruce and Alfred examining the burned-out manor and that last meeting with Batman and Gordon at the Bat-Signal, so that last scene hasn't happened yet-; hope you like it  
> Just to clarify to avoid the possibility of later confusion, Kate will be going by the name 'Talia' during her meeting with Bruce because she doesn't know quite how far she can trust him and so doesn't want to give him anything that he can use to track her down later

As he sat in the restaurant, Bruce wondered why he was even bothering to be out on this particular night. With reconstruction having begun on the mansion- he was just grateful that the foundations were reasonably intact; at least that limited the possibility that anyone would find the cave, which meant that he still had somewhere to keep his equipment until he and Alfred sorted out new accommodation for the next year or so-, he and Alfred were staying in a hotel until they could sort out the necessary paperwork to move into a new penthouse at the top of one of the hotels he'd purchased in an idle moment beforehand; he might own the place, but that didn't automatically grant him the right to any room he wanted for the foreseeable future.

Add in the need to find somewhere nearby to keep his equipment without attracting too much attention to his night-time comings and goings, and things were going to be difficult for the next few days...

"Mr Wayne?" a voice said, a slightly Russian lilt to its accent. Looking up, Bruce smiled in a manner that wasn't entirely false at the woman standing by his table; in her mid-twenties, with shoulder-length dark brown hair, dressed in a dark greyish-blue dress that fit her comfortably without exaggerating anything. Unlike the 'blonde bimbos' he'd been known to 'date' as part of his cover, this woman clearly knew what she had and was comfortable with showing just that rather than trying too hard to show off certain things over others, which did raise the question of what she was doing here...

On the other hand, while he'd come here alone, it wouldn't exactly be good manners for even 'billionaire playboy' Bruce Wayne to reject someone who'd come over specifically to talk to him, even if he'd previously expressed a preference for his own company when he made this booking...

"That's me," he said, smiling at her, taking care to exaggerate his tone as he looked at her; it wouldn't do to let down his guard too much, after all. "And you are...?"

"Talia," the woman replied, sitting down opposite him without even waiting for an invitation, a slightly teasing smile on her face as she looked at him. "I believe you know my father?"

"Your father?" Bruce said, looking at her curiously; of all the things he'd been expecting to hear from this woman, that hadn't been one of them...

"Ra's al Ghul," Talia replied.

If it wouldn't have attracted far too much attention to himself, Bruce would have virtually flown into action after hearing that statement; as it was, he started for a moment before he relaxed.

Ra's al Ghul, or Henri Ducard, or whatever he wanted to call himself, might be a dangerous man, but even with his taste for theatricality he wouldn't send his daughter in to talk to Bruce if he just wanted him dead; whatever 'Talia' was here for, it was something aside from the most obvious possibility.

"My mother was a lawyer who met my father while he was in the country on business," Talia explained, looking slightly to her left as she spoke, her gaze on a window showing a good view of Gotham; Bruce recognised that manner from his own experience as wanting to talk about the current topic without actually looking at how people reacted to it. "The relationship itself was temporary, as many of my father's are, but when the result was me, he remained in contact with my mother long after he would normally have left."

"You were raised by him?" Bruce asked, looking inquiringly at her.

"I saw him a few times when I was growing up," Talia said, her eyes lowering for a moment before she looked back at him. "However, these meetings were only brief- a couple of weeks every few months-, and I had little idea of what he did when I was growing up, saved that it involved punishing those who did wrong. If things had turned out differently, I may have joined him when I was old enough, but..."

She sighed in frustration, staring at the table for a few moments before she looked up at him once again, her expression the emotionless mask he recognised from when he'd seen his face in the mirror when remembering his parents. "My mother was murdered when I was seventeen."

"Oh," Bruce said, his mind briefly flashing back to the tale that Ducard- _Ra's_ \- had once told him in brief about the wife he'd lost long ago. A part of him wondered if it had been the same woman- Talia's words suggested that Ra's had been through a few relationships over the years, which could imply that the wife he was talking about hadn't been her mother-, but he decided not to bother asking; even if Talia could answer it for certain, there were some things that shouldn't be shared.

"Due to a... difference of opinion... after my mother died, I fell out of regular contact with my father ever since that day," Talia continued, looking increasingly solemn as she spoke; Bruce briefly thought about asking what that difference had been about, but quickly reminded himself of his previous thoughts about the necessity of privacy and kept his mouth shut. "I have heard the occasional message from him, and we once met to discuss things, but that was the last I heard from him... until, that is, I determined his hand in the events that took place in this city a short while ago."

"You guessed, huh?" Bruce replied, looking solemnly back at her.

"For all that they work in the shadows, the League's tactics are obvious once you know what to look for," Talia replied, smiling slightly before she stared directly at Bruce once again. "What I want to know is what happened during that attack. I know that you spent some time training with my father a couple of years ago, but I do not know what happened between then and now to lead to this attack on Gotham, and I doubt that you were involved in it if you have chosen to remain..."

"The thought that I might be a deep cover agent didn't occur to you?" Bruce asked; testing the waters in such a manner might be dangerous, but it was something that he felt it only right to bring up.

"My father's deep cover agents would not remain after a plan failed," Talia replied. "Even if a plan such as the attack failed, any deep cover agents would have effectively destroyed their cover by participating in such an attack in the first place; my father... does not often plan for defeat."

"Because he doesn't experience it that often?" Bruce guessed.

"Quite," Talia replied with a nod. "His focus and self-belief is commendable, but I trust we both know that assuming failure is impossible is a risky decision to make."

"Quite," Bruce replied, smiling briefly at her before a thought occurred to him. "So... if you're not here because you think I participated in the attack... why are you here?"

"If you want to share them, I seek answers," Talia said, smiling briefly at him. "It is, of course, your choice as to whether or not you decide to tell me everything; I simply came to see you because you are the only person in this city who, to the best of my knowledge, might have the information I am looking for."

Looking at her, Bruce contemplated what he could share with her and what he couldn't; her knowledge of his training with her father made it likely that she already knew the 'main' secret, but that didn't mean it was a good idea to share everything with her...

"Your father led the attack on Gotham," he said at last; he could at least give her that much information without compromising too many of his own secrets. "You know about the blue poppies your father used in his... initiation rituals?"

"The fear gases they produce when burned force prospective League members to face their fears while seeking their target?" Talia said, nodding briefly at him. "My father told me some of the key details about the League once I confirmed that I had no desire to join them myself; since I would never participate in the rituals, advance knowledge of them was irrelevant."

"I see," Bruce said, nodding briefly before he continued speaking. "Anyway, he had made contact with a doctor at Arkham Asylum- I don't know what prompted him to pay attention to this guy in particular, so don't ask- called Doctor Jonathan Crane, who managed to weaponise the toxin into a form that could be introduced to the water supply."

"The water supply?" Talia asked, looking curiously at him. "How would that help?"

"The League had acquired a microwave emitter capable of turning the water in its immediate area into a gaseous state," Bruce explained. "By adding the toxin to the water supply and loading the microwave emitter onto the monorail train that followed the city water-pipes, the League would be able to disperse the toxin throughout Gotham by using the emitter on the main water supply underneath Wayne Tower; the resulting chaos would..."

"Would culminate in Gotham destroying itself as its citizens ran rampant through the streets," Talia finished, her expression grim as she looked pointedly at Bruce. "How are you aware of this plan if you were not involved?"

"Because I _was_ involved, but only in the sense of trying to stop it," Bruce said, looking firmly at her, giving himself a moment to judge her reaction before he continued speaking. "Your father was an excellent teacher, but I didn't agree with his methods."

"In what way?" Talia asked,

"On the final day of my training, he wanted me to kill an unarmed man," Bruce replied. "Maybe the man deserved it, maybe he didn't, but I wasn't going to become an executioner; my enemies won't share my compassion, but that just demonstrates how we aren't them, rather than giving us a reason to sink to their level. I left the League that day- destroyed the training area they were using at the time, actually-, and returned to Gotham, where I... well, let's just say I'm putting the skills I acquired with the League to an obvious practical use."

As he watched Talia, he could practically see the moment when the facts came together in her mind.

"I take it you have a certain... interest... in unconventional nocturnal activities?" she said at last, looking at him with a slight smile.

"And the financial resources to support such a hobby," Bruce confirmed with a nod.

"And you feel that is an... appropriate use of your resources?" she asked.

"I achieve more as a symbol than I can as a public face," Bruce said. "Don't get me wrong, I'm investing in various campaigns to rebuild the city as well as my... other... activities, but as a symbol I can be incorruptible and elusive, able to attack those who won't respond to a conventional approach while limiting what they can do to attack me back."

"A sensible precaution," Talia said, nodding at him in approval. "In a city as dangerous as Gotham, something... _shocking_ is required to make your point."

"It's dangerous, I know, but it's worth it," Bruce said, acknowledging Talia's point even as his voice betrayed his resolution to continue with his current strategy. "Gotham isn't beyond saving; it just needs the right catalyst to realise what it can be."

"From what I have seen, you understand my father's mission better than my father himself does now," Talia said, smiling in approval at him.

For a moment, the two sat and stared at each other, past events and future possibilities flowing through their minds as they contemplated each, until Talia stood up.

"Well, I must be off," she said, looking apologetically at Bruce. "As I am sure you can appreciate, I am... uncomfortable... remaining out in the open for longer than I must."

"Your father's enemies?" Bruce asked curiously.

"My existence isn't known to many of them, but it would be... unwise to make myself visible in a location where my father has been for too long; I have a life outside of this world that I would prefer remained unknown to all," Talia said, looking apologetically at him for a moment before she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small white card, which she passed to him with a smile. "However, if you feel the need to talk about... things that cannot be shared with others... simply call this number and I will be with you when I can."

"Uh... thanks," Bruce said, nodding politely back at Talia as she stood up and walked away, heading for the door of the restaurant with a purpose about herself that made it clear she would accept no interruptions in her goal. For a moment, he thought about calling her back and offering her his own contact number, but quickly decided against it; while he had naturally taken steps to ensure his privacy, anyone who was related to Ra's al Ghul should have access to the kind of connections needed to find at least one phone number that she could use to reach him.

It was a strange thing to think about someone who had just admitted that she was the daughter of the man he'd both respected as a teacher and opposed as an adversary, but there was still something about Talia that made it clear that she _wasn't_ like her father; she gave the impression that her mother's death had made just as powerful an impact on her as the one his own parents' deaths had made on him.

His contact with her might go no further than the meeting they'd just shared, but there was still something about her that left him confident that she wouldn't be a new enemy, even if he couldn't exactly call her a new friend after they'd spent so little time together...

She had given him little to base this deduction on, but what he knew was enough for him to feel certain that Talia al Ghul would not kill with the indiscriminate ease that her father had demonstrated; unlike her father, she hadn't allowed her loss to deprive her of the compassion that separated them from their enemies.

Shaking such thoughts aside, Bruce turned his attention back to his food, thoughts of Talia al Ghul pushed to the side for the moment...


	5. The Daughter's Farewell

Sitting in her hotel room, Kate had to admit that she had actually enjoyed her brief meeting with Bruce Wayne, even if she hadn't even stayed for dinner.

As much as she wanted to trust him, she just wasn't comfortable sharing more information about her real background with anyone; her relationship with her father was complicated at best, but she understood that he had kept himself out of her life in order to ensure that none of his enemies could find her.

In some ways, it was almost disturbing how easy it had been for her to assume a 'cover identity' for her meeting; the semester she'd spent in Kiev thanks to her father's donations had given her the chance to develop a fairly convincing Russian accent, which, combined with her use of her 'birth' name rather than her 'cover' name- she might think of herself as Kate Beckett first, but Talia al Ghul was still the name on her original birth certificate-, should be enough to stop Bruce Wayne finding her unless she wanted him to do so.

Giving him the phone number had been risky, but she felt that it would be good for Bruce Wayne to have someone else to talk to about whatever he had done as Batman; even if he had allies or associates who had helped him assemble his arsenal and other available equipment, an outsider's perspective on events could often be of more value to someone in this kind of work than someone who had been there from the beginning.

Still, no matter how disturbing it was to hear how far her father had fallen when he launched his attack on Gotham, she was glad that she'd had a chance to talk with Bruce Wane about what had taken place, to say nothing of the unique opportunity to talk with the most infamous vigilante of the modern world.

As a detective, it hadn't been hard for her to deduce that Bruce Wayne was Batman, but that was only because she knew that Bruce Wayne had been training with her father and would have had the opportunity to pick up the necessary combat skills to become the 'Dark Knight', as he was coming to be known to the general public; once she'd started thinking about Batman's role in the crisis and Bruce Wayne's continued presence in Gotham after a failed attack by the League of Shadows, it didn't take Sherlock Holmes to realise that the most likely explanation was that the two men were the same person.

It hadn't taken her long to realise that she wasn't going to use that information, of course. Even if the part of her that had trained at the Academy knew that she was legally required to report Bruce Wayne's activities as Batman to the Gotham police, the rest of her knew that she wouldn't do such a thing; in a city like New York or San Francisco, a vigilante was just a random citizen with interesting skills trying to make an impression, but in a city like Gotham, where the crime rate was so high that most of the cops were on the take because it was easier, it was easier to understand the mentality that would inspire someone to don the mask of the Batman in the first place.

So long as Bruce didn't kill anyone, and so long as she was certain that Gotham City still needed Batman to keep the peace- rather than Bruce going out and beating people up for the sake of it, rather than because the city genuinely needed the reputation of Batman to intimidate the worst of the criminals into backing down-, she would keep his secret.

If either of those situations changed...

She'd deal with that when the time came, even as she hoped that such a time would never come; she didn't want to have to arrest Bruce for doing what more than one detective would like to do if they didn't have to worry about the other issues of the job.

It was a small legacy for her father's cult, but, in its own way, that just made it all the more appropriate a legacy; when her father had lost his way more than once in his desire to 'protect the world', Bruce had maintained his with his focus on a specific city that he knew and loved, rather than operating on a scale that would almost force him to cross the line if he was going to do anything.

In any case, she'd accomplished what she'd come here to do, and she'd head home the following night; the more time she spent here, the greater the risk that someone would find where she was saying and identify her as 'Bruce Wayne's latest fling', attracting far more attention to her than she wanted or needed; if anyone back in New York saw the photographs that would result from that discovery and recognised her, the last thing she wanted was to face questions from her colleagues about why she was meeting with _Bruce Wayne_ of all people.

This meeting would never be something that she would discuss with anyone but herself and Bruce, but it was something that she would always remember; it was the moment when she had met the man that her own father had considered worthy enough to suggest him as a partner.

Even if she doubted that she would ever see Bruce Wayne in that manner, she would always respect him as a fellow crusader in the fight to give others what they'd never be able to find for themselves, and her father had given him the skills he needed to accomplish that goal; it wasn't the most conventional connection, but the bond was there nevertheless.

"Goodbye, father," she said, looking out at the large form of Wayne Tower in the centre of the city, the location where her father had last been seen by Bruce Wayne before the train that he was on had crashed.

She had spent so little time with him over the course of her life, and they had drifted so far apart over the years since her mother's death, but he was still her father, and he deserved that much acknowledgement.

She had some doubts about whether her father was actually dead, of course- she'd heard too many stories about what he'd survived in the past to believe that he was truly gone without a body-, but, if he wasn't gone for good, he would definitely be gone from her life for the foreseeable future.

Still, he'd been gone from her life for so long already that another absence wouldn't really make any difference one way or the other; the events that Bruce had described just made it more likely that his absence would be permanent from here on in.

Maybe it was her imagination, but, as she turned to prepare for bed, she couldn't shake the feeling that someone else was watching her, somehow keeping an eye on her rather than watching her for the sake of watching her...

 _Enough_ , she told herself.

Bruce certainly couldn't have followed her as himself without attracting attention, and there was no way for him to have found her hotel when she'd checked in under another false name- Clara Storm; it was a neat little indulgence of her interest in those mystery novels-; she was just being overly paranoid.

She'd be home tomorrow, and her time in Gotham would pass by as nothing but an interesting diversion to give her important answers to certain questions about recent events; she doubted she'd ever actually return to the city now that she'd found what she was looking for.


End file.
